


Upside

by BananaStrings



Category: Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Girl in Lovers Lane (1960)
Genre: 1950s, Episode: s05e09 The Girl in Lovers Lane, Family, First Love, M/M, Parenthood, Screenshots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:41:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29824404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BananaStrings/pseuds/BananaStrings
Summary: Danny takes Bix home to live with him and his father, forcing his father to deal with his son's awakening sexuality and the dangers that face them all.
Relationships: Bix Dugan/Danny Winslow





	Upside

**Author's Note:**

> a screenshot:  
> https://bananastringsart.tumblr.com/post/644658910470520832/upside-1-danny-steadies-himself-against-bixs

When Bix had arrived, Mr. Winslow had looked in his eyes and welcomed him to stay, certain that it would only be a day or two before the restless, young man would disappear. He hadn't anticipated the draw that his son had on the older boy. Danny had moved Bix into the upstairs guest room that first night, though he now seemed to sleep in Danny's bed more nights than not. 

The new audacity of his son shocked him. To think he'd assume he had a right to bring a lover home with him and offer him residence in his father's house, it may all have been some sort of test, conscious or not, to see if his father's offer to let him live with him was a conditional one. It was a very uncertain time for Danny, as he wasn't sure where sure-footing lay any longer. He must be uncertain as to whether he's wanted anymore, or whether his father will change his mind, the way he changed his mind about his marriage. 

There was not much Mr. Winslow could do to reassure him, to turn his upside down world right side up again. His own world seemed to be on the same level, divorced after eighteen years, divorced in a court with lawyers who had been only his colleagues now deeply involved in what had only been private, that court charging his teenage son with the responsibility for choosing which parent to reside with, an impossible choice which had driven his son to disappear for the most harrowing week of Mr. Winslow's life.

He was ragged. They were all ragged, and his father knew these kind of relationships didn't end well. He didn't mean between men. Strangely, it had nothing to do with that. It was the genesis in desperation that kept him up at night. The path Danny and Bix had walked side by side, though he thanked god every chance he got that it led back to his door, had been sheer survival pushing them together, not necessarily affinity. It reminded him too painfully of he and his wife. She'd gotten pregnant, and eighteen years later she had gotten out. Mr. Winslow felt he needed to give the two a chance to see if they even liked one another in situations that were not life and death.

He took them out to eat at a nice restaurant to start, to celebrate Danny's homecoming. He felt like a chaperone on his kid's first date. It surprised him that it went as well as it did, that it actually worked. Having him there did make it safer for them to enjoy each others' company, and so far they did. 

_"This is your turf, kid. You go ahead and order for me," Bix requested._

_"But I don't know what you like."_

_"Looking at this menu, I don't know what I like either."_

_"Okay," Danny acceded with a grin._

_Mr. Winslow couldn't help but smile a little as well, seeing the new confidence of his son. When Danny had run, his father suspected he hadn't expected to get very far. He'd probably hoped that whichever parent found him first would settle the question of custody. It wasn't a bad plan, but Bix had found him first and seemingly helped him find himself._

He took them to a baseball game. He bought them gloves. He played catch and hit with them. He bought them books that he remembered being subtly "relevant" from his university days. He sat with them in the front room like a formal ritual and read with them aloud. 

The greatest boon was the unexpected one, as his efforts began to renew his bond with his son. Danny was softening in the midst of this new, loving attitude, feeling secure again. Even if Bix left, his father would have a much better chance of offering Danny comfort and support now. 

Because Bix Dugan, well, Bix was looking more skittish than ever, which Mr. Winslow silently accepted as a good thing. Let the boy run, if he needed to. Let his son cry himself to sleep at night and slowly turn Bix into a fond memory of what had brought him back to his family. But, again he was surprised, for he felt he could not let the young man, who by his own actions he had made a part of his family, go without saying goodbye.

On a particularly restless night, he sat Bix down in his study, just the two of them. 

"What do you want to do with your life, Bix?"

His eyes darted about. 

"I'm not sending you away," he assured quietly, realizing immediately his mistake.

This skittishness was not in desire to run but to stay, something so unfamiliar to Dugan that he distrusted it completely.

"I think of you as a son now," Mr. Winslow admitted. 

Bix only paled at that. 

"I had a father once. Because of him, the only thing I've ever wanted was to stay out of trouble. And it hasn't worked; trouble follows me no matter where I go." 

"Do you get into trouble at the factory?" 

He'd been making shoes, cutting and sewing leather. He knew how his hands ached at night, how dangerous the blades were, how risky the work to his fingers, but how determined he was to offer a fee for his room and board. (All those offered earnings had been deposited discretely into Danny's college fund, in case Danny refused to go without Bix as he'd been intimating.)

"In my mind," Bix said quietly now too. "There's always trouble in my mind." 

Mr. Winslow sighed. Dugan was handsome, tall, with wide brown eyes, blessed to be an honest looking man and to have some of that honesty real within him. He had a shrewdness to him unlike Danny's, whose every thought was played over his face. 

"Does Danny give you trouble?"

He was surprised to see him duck deeply at that. It occurred to him that they'd never once broached the subject of the boys' relationship. Perhaps after having his own privacy torn apart, Mr. Winslow had been instinctually protective of his son's.

"I'm more worried about the trouble we're causing you." 

It was honest again, if a bit evasive. 

"Have I acted troubled?"

"I wasn't sure how good you were at lying, lawyer and all." 

It was a joke softened by fondness. He was surprised to find that Bix cared about him in return. He hadn't even considered it. There were many things he'd not considered—like permanence again after so much upheaval. 

"Do you think I'm lying?"

"It's easier to believe than thinking otherwise," he breathed out. 

"What good would lying do?"

"You could pretend it wasn't happening, then you wouldn't have to think about it."

Mr. Winslow chuckled at that. "I don't have to think about it in either case," he asserted facetiously. 

"Sorry," Bix murmured, head down. 

"For what?"

"I don't know. Giving you something not to think about it?" 

He laughed again. "I'm fine."

Bix's mouth curved into the smallest of smiles, some part of him finally feeling reassured. 

"You're not like my father," he said softly. 

He recognized these as the most affectionate words Bix could have spoken.

Mr. Winslow got out his journal that night. He'd started it to find the good in all the bad situations he'd been facing leading up to and during his divorce. He'd succeeded, every day he'd found at least one positive thing to write. When his son had run away, just after the custody hearing had concluded, his father had abandoned the book, as if all good had then been truly gone. He hadn’t picked it back up, even when his son had returned a week later, except to write: _thank god_. What had followed that gratitude however had been a challenge more rigorous than he'd ever anticipated. It wasn't until now, six months after that return, that he could bring himself to find the upside.

_There is love in my home._


End file.
